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RPX v. IMAX

This is a quick little cinema review to tide things over till I get a few more reviews done. I Am Number Four is coming soon.

Regal Cinema in Newington, NH recently added an “RPX*” theater into the whole cineplex and after being an IMAX guy for quite sometime, I took my girlfriend to see I Am Number Four, their launch title for the new screen. The results… RPX is an IMAX wannabe, maybe it’s better in other locations, but this is the first and only in NH as far as I know. Even the IMAX in Hooksett, NH at Cinemagic, while not a full sized IMAX, is still much better. The RPX screen is about half the size of the IMAX screen in Cinemagic, with about the equal sound (after a while I just don’t hear a difference). The seats are about the same, comfortable and rocking, in which people still feel the need to kick the back of your chair (grrr). The prices are a bit cheaper, but only by about two dollars or so in the end.

In the end I’m not giving up my IMAX for this RPX, in school I’m closer to the IMAX theater, my girlfriend lives ten minutes from it as well. There’s no comparison.

There’s a difference between IMAX and Digital IMAX… it sounds weird, but there are IMAX theaters that are full IMAX and the digital IMAX theaters that are not full IMAX. RPX is the latter. In New Hampshire, to get true IMAX, one has to go to Boston.

Wikipedia says as such: “The digital installations have caused some controversy, as many theaters have branded their screens as IMAX after merely retrofitting standard auditoriums with IMAX digital projectors. The screen sizes in these auditoriums are much smaller than those in the purpose-built auditoriums of the original 15/70 IMAX format. These theaters charge the same premium pricing as the purpose-built IMAX theaters, resulting in consumer confusion.”